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Springfield employees’ hands tied during pharmacy robbery

A Springfield pharmacy was robbed Tuesday night and police say two suspects tied employee’s hands and locked them in a bathroom while they were stealing drugs.

One suspect, Tyrez Boyd, 24, is charged in Clark County Municipal Court with seven counts of abduction, one count of armed robbery with a deadly weapon and two counts of obstructing official business. Boyd pleaded not guilty to the charges and Clark County Municipal Judge Denise Moody set his bond at more than $500,000.

Police began their investigation when they were called to Harding Road Pharmacy on Harding Road for a robbery in progress involving a gun. A witness who tried to enter the store said the door was locked and he saw a man robbing the place. Also, an employee dialed 9-1-1 to let police know that the store was being robbed by two suspects with a gun.

“I arrived within a minute or so of the dispatch and entered the parking lot with my vehicle lights off,” Springfield police officer Roger Jenkins II said. “I exited my vehicle and looked in the windows. I saw a black male suspect wearing a grey hoody … running towards the front door.”

The suspect ran out the door carrying a white trash bag with bottles inside, the officer said.

The suspect was able to get away but had to drop the bag of stolen items, the officer said. Then he saw a second suspect running through the pharmacy. The suspect was identified as Boyd, in the affidavit, and he too ran out the store with a trash bag.

“I chased him on foot west and around the building northbound into the parking lot,” Jenkins wrote. “He continued to the rear fence line. I caught up to him and he climbed an eight-foot privacy fence. I grabbed his jacket and he pulled over the top of the fence and dropping the bag of stolen narcotics in the process.”

The officer collected the bag and returned it to the store where he found three women with their hands tied behind their back.

“They advised that the suspects tied them up after Mr. Boyd pointed a gun at (one of the women),” the affidavit says.

The woman said the men were after the oxycontin in the store. Boyd, of Indianapolis, was later arrested in the Ridgewood neighborhood, according to court documents. He was identified by the woman as one of the suspects.